


Manufactured Nights and a Piece of Invisible String

by Winterhawk616



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Alternate Universe - House of M, Avengers - Freeform, Bucky Barnes as Captain America, BuckyCap - Freeform, First Meetings, Kinda, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Ronin Clint Barton, Secret Identities, Vigilantes in Love, Vigilantism, winterhawk - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:27:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26864374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winterhawk616/pseuds/Winterhawk616
Summary: Earth- 58163. Bucky Barnes is alive and shouldn't be. Clint Barton has turned vigilante. In a manufactured world they find each other and even when faced with their own death know, somehow, they'll meet again.//‘Close your eyes,’ Bucky whispers and Ronin complies as he finally takes off his mask. ‘Promise me you can’t see anything. Promise you won’t look at me,’ Bucky shudders, their lips barely touching.‘I wont,’ Ronin whispers back, and he means it.//DISCLAIMER: you do not need to have read the comics to read this fic!
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton
Comments: 7
Kudos: 26





	Manufactured Nights and a Piece of Invisible String

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER:
> 
> You do not have to have read House of M to understand this fic but you do need to know this:
> 
> \- This doesn't make any sense when you compare it to canon.
> 
> \- I wrote this as a joke.
> 
> \- I've honestly read House of M and its related comics once so this is highly inaccurate. 
> 
> \- Also I'm like 80% sure Clint died before the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier in the 616 universe and so keep that in mind when you get to the end of the fic and he tells Bucky he died during the war? Okay. Okay. 
> 
> Enjoy.

Rumour has it that when the day ends below New York City you can hear the cries of the mutants lost. You can hear, for a moment as the sun sets, the eternal screams of a genocide. It is said to plague the ears of only the humans as they shall always, forever and ever, be reminded of what they did. Bucky Barnes knew it was real in some sense. As he wanders the streets and as the day turns to night he is reminded, if only for a moment, that he killed and killed and killed. He knows, deep down, that maybe it wasn’t really him but he held the gun, he threw the shield and he killed hundreds. It is this daily reminder that spurs on his deep need to help the people of New York City, mutant or not, and to keep himself away from anything that could bring him joy. Rumour has it that Bucky Barnes would never live a life without knowing the terror of killing and having no control over it. But there is no real proof of this obviously. 

That’s how Bucky found himself in that abandoned warehouse; he was looking for a fight. Looking for someone to beat the shit out of him. The only human contact he really let himself have and this guy was good. He knew exactly what Bucky’s play was, every single move was countered before Bucky even knew he was doing it. He hated using the shield but he knew why Steve was so attached to it. It would come out of nowhere and it would bend the air at will. No-one understood the shield except the few who had worked closely with Steve. It was unpredictable to the opponent, but utterly reliable to the man or woman who wielded it. But it was heavy and, if Bucky was honest, it was ugly. Smashing someone’s face in with a dinner plate was just not his style. The added bonus of carrying around the thing that killed you was…interesting. He’d much rather shoot them in the shin and be done with it. This guy though. The shield came flying at his face and he…he caught it. Bucky blinked a couple of times taking in the sight. Black leather with gold detailing, a sword secured to his back, not yet drawn , and his eyes with a flicker of something recognisable, but disfigured by a fierce fire that burned. 

Everything stood still for a moment too long as the man held the shield in one hand, extended out as his eyes peered over the top of it. He dropped it and it rattled about on the concrete floor of the warehouse. Bucky lifted his chin readying himself for a counter attack but it never came. 

‘Oh, Cap,’ the dark voice muttered. Bucky strained to see if he recognised it the same way he did the mans eyes. ‘You’re so predictable.’ And then he was gone, into the darkness after dazzling Bucky with only words and a single, enchanting, look. 

That was the first time Ronin and Captain America met. In a dusty old warehouse just outside of human-run Hells Kitchen. Bucky will admit the man’s eyes plagued him for longer than they should have. They seemed so familiar as if he had always been gazing into them. The second time they met it was in Bucky’s current hide out in Brooklyn. Ronin, as he is known on the streets of New York City, cames swooping in the window and nearly had his head taken off by the shield. 

‘Captain America. I wondered how long it would take for me to find where you’ve been hiding out.’ After all but leaping through the window he leans against against the far wall while Bucky is turned away fixing on his mask so the man doesn’t see him. 

‘I don’t go by that name.’ Bucky turns around and takes him in

‘Sure, sure…The Winter Soldier. Very dramatic. Where exactly did you get that one from?’ His head tilts in an almost friendly manner which catches Bucky off guard.

‘I don’t know,’ he hesitates, ‘it just came to me.’ 

‘Ronin,’ the man extends a gloved hand and Bucky just stares. 

‘Sure,’ he whispers to the hand. Ronin pulls back and laughs lightly before talking again. 

‘So, what? You work for S.H.I.E.L.D?’

‘No.’

‘How did you get the shield then? If I’m right nobody’s wielded it since it decapitated James Buchanan Barnes.’ Bucky gulps. Ronin didn’t know who he was, but hearing his old name for the first time in years was jarring; it made his head swim. 

‘How did you know that?’

‘I have my ears to the ground.’ Ronin laughs like he knows something Bucky doesn’t, but Bucky just takes a tentative step forward. 

‘Barnes died. The shield wasn’t needed anymore.’ His voice was almost robotic as he finally was able to look into Ronin’s eyes again. It shakes him how familiar those eyes are, but this guy can’t be older than 40 and Bucky hasn’t spoken to another person, that isn’t Tony Stark, since Magneto ‘killed him’. He glanced out the window the man had thrown himself through. He could see the sun setting between buildings and it calmed him.

‘So, you stole it?’

‘Yup.’ Bucky turned away and walked back up the apartment, leaving his back exposed to the stranger. 

‘And now you are Captain America?’ Ronin was persistent and if it wasn’t for the familiarity of his eyes or how his distorted voice made Bucky’s mind reel, Bucky probably would have shot him by now. 

‘Unofficially,’ he grunts back. 

‘Which explains the name change,’ Ronin says, mostly to himself. 

‘Do you want something?’ Bucky snaps, overcome with a desperate need to be alone. 

‘You a Mutie?’ He says it with such distaste it makes Bucky’s skin crawl. He picks up the handgun he keeps tucked behind the unused cooker and slips it into his thigh holster. His eyes climb up the wall and then finally answers the question.

‘I’m not a mutant, no,’ Bucky turns back to him and diverts his eyes to the ever disappearing sunlight. 

‘You’re just a? What enhanced human? Haven’t seen a new one of them in a while.’ Ronin’s eyes flicker down to the sudden appearance of a gun strapped to Bucky’s thigh; but his eyes only linger on it for a moment. 

‘I’m not new.’

‘Sure, listen. There isn’t many of us out there and I thought.’

‘You thought what?’ Bucky interrupted, knowing exactly what he was thinking. Ronin pushed himself off the wall and stood up straight and tall. He was half a foot taller than Bucky and winder too, but Bucky had the advantage of knowing exactly where every weapon was hidden in his apartment. 

‘Listen-’

‘You wanna team up?’ he keeps his voice low and calm. Bucky squinted at little over his muzzle like mask and watched Ronin’s eyes smile back. Bucky takes a step back and lets himself think for a moment. The guy was friendly and didn’t seem like a threat but he could fight and Bucky knew he could take him down. 

‘Leave.’

‘Happily.’ He steps up onto the window sill and then looks back, ’When you find a new place, try and make sure it’s closer to Hells Kitchen. Such an effort getting here.’ Then he winks and throws himself from the window down onto the streets below. Bucky darts for the open window and watches, but he was gone in an instant leaving nothing but a faint scent of vanilla and a kind of warmth Bucky hasn’t felt in years.

The next time Bucky saw the masked swordsman he wasn’t exactly dressed for the occasion. It was difficult for a dead man to travel during the day even if it had been twenty years since he had died and no one really remembered an old S.H.I.E.L.D agent who used to throw around Captain America’s shield for the bad guys. But, he couldn’t show his face and he couldn’t exactly wear his muzzle mask out on the subway. He usually kept to travelling at night and in the shadows but sometimes a man needed to get from Brooklyn to Queens during rush hour and taking the subway was his best bet. He kept his head down and his hood up, but always carried his mask just incase of a run with something less than ordinary. 

Bucky was on the subway trying to keep his head down when it happened. The entire train stopped, skidded across the lines and collided with a tunnel wall. Everyone was thrown from where they sat. A kid clung to Bucky’s metal arm with instinct and he gripped a bar with his other as the front of the carriage was crushed into the brick wall. The lights went out and then to red as Bucky slipped on his masks and stood quickly. Stalking down the aisle he checked for anyone looking suspicious and then he caught site of the shadow moving outside the cart. 

‘Stay down and stay quite,’ Bucky called to the passengers who all looked unhurt and conscious. They all moved up the cart and away from crash site. Bucky ripped off the far door with his arm he glanced out into the darkness and saw nothing. Suddenly a voice called out from above him. 

‘Long time no see, Cap!’ Bucky looked up. There was Ronin perched on top of the cart with…with a bow and arrow? The man waved and then sprung upwards and across the cart towards Bucky, he gripped onto the gap in the roof and swung himself into the cart in one brisk and elegant movement. Bucky felt him fly past him and then turned grabbing his arm and pulling him back out. He danged the man out of the door and above the electrified tracks. He notices, now that light from the cart was illuminating the man, that he was wear a purple mask and costume. 

‘You look different?’ Bucky mumbled taking in the man slowly. This look was much more like the superheroes Bucky was seeing in the news. Colourful outfits and tacky gimmicks. Bucky almost second guessed himself but the scent of vanilla and the comforting familiarness of his eyes reassured him. This was Ronin. 

‘I could say the same!’ Ronin smiled cheerfully, looking unbothered by the the threatening glare being aimed at him. ‘Is this like…cap o’natural. You look nice. Civilian is a good shade on you,’ his eyebrows wiggled about above his ridiculous purple mask. 

‘Explain. Now. Ronin.’ Bucky growled.

‘Oh, would mind not calling me that?’ The man inhaled sharply. ‘I kinda go by Hawkeye…most of the time. Nobody really knows I’m Ronin.’ Bucky loosened his grip only a little as he heard a flutter of shouts from further down the tunnels. ‘There is currently a subway cart full of explosives just further up…you wanna help?’ Bucky’s eyes betrayed him there glancing off and then back to Ronin a flicker of uncertainty. ‘Just get the civilians to the surface, and maybe use that super strength of yours to make sure no one else gets down here.’ Ronin winks at him as Bucky pulls him up and let’s go off the bright purple material. ‘Listen, Cap. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I wasn’t recruiting you before. I just…I felt-’ A huge, almost supersonic, blast from further down the subway line cut Ronin off. Bucky reached out to grab his arm before he plummeted down onto the tracks. ‘The power is down.’ Ronin shouted over the falling rubble. ‘Take the civilians up the north tunnel and you’ll come to an out of use station. You’ll be able to bust your way put through a blocked up door into an old tunnel. There is a disused staircase up to the surface. Make sure no one gets through the perimeter we’ve set.’ Even as he described the disaster that was hesitating over them like a dark storm cloud, Ronin was smiling. Excited by the thrill of saving lives. Smiling like he hadn’t yet seen someone die at his hands. Bucky hated him for it. Hated him for still being young and happy. Bucky turns to the civilians who are still crouched soundless and terrified. They are looking up to them with a hopefulness Bucky hasn’t seen since the war. He’d been a villain for so long and now he only stays around along enough to fix a problem. He hadn’t had people rely on him in a long time.

‘There is a situation further south, we need to head north,’ Bucky said in his most Steve-like voice. ‘I need you all to stay in front of me and move fast. Once we get to the surface you need to run as far away as you can. Make sure no-one is left in front of the perimeter. Do you understand?’ The group nodded quickly. Bucky notices the kid and his mother slowly stand. Bucky pulled the kid up and dropped down to his level. ‘What’s your name, pal?’ 

‘RJ,’ the kid says meekly. 

‘Okay, RJ. I’m going to give you a lift so you don’t get left behind. Is that alright?’ The kids nods and so does his terrified mother. Bucky pulls the kid up onto his back and turns to Ronin. He smiles at Bucky. 

‘You still look ridiculous!’ Bucky calls out before Ronin can disappear into the darkness of the subway tunnel. 

This lasted longer than Bucky wanted. He indulged. Ronin was the first person he had been in contact with in years and it was nice. It got nicer. There were moments where they would be in the action and they moved in sync. Bucky hadn’t felt like this fighting alongside someone since Steve. And that had made sense. Steve was his mentor…his brother. He taught Bucky everything he knows and yet this Ronin comes in, out of nowhere, and knows Bucky better than he knows himself. And Bucky knows him. He can see the man calculate his movements with his eyes, he can tell if he’s injured from a twitch and he can sense that the man feels the same undying connection he did. 

After one particular nasty fight against a human terrorist organisation who were planning an attack on mutant homes in Manhattan, Ronin was badly hurt and Bucky didn’t now what to do. He was bleeding from a bullet wound in his side and was losing consciousness slowly. Bucky took him to the only safe place he knew. 

He lay him out on his bed in his new Hells Kitchen apartment. He let it from an old human couple who didn’t want references or even names. Just cash every month no questions asked. He never wanted Ronin to know he had taken his advice and moved closer to Hells Kitchen and away from Brooklyn. Ronin still hadn’t found his new digs and not for the lack of trying. He had followed Bucky on more than one occasion and Bucky was always able to lose him by heading south long enough. It was nice little game they had going on but Bucky was still smart enough to never let the man get too close. Until then. 

Ronin was wheezing out short and static breathes that made Bucky’s heart race. He slipped out a knife he kept strapped to his side and cut off the leather around the wound and fished for the bullet. Ronin completely lost consciousness after that. 

When Ronin woke up he was lying on a lumpy mattress not unlike his own in a small room with pea green walls that makes his stomach lurch. There is a striking pain in his side which only added to the panic that overcomes him as he scans the room. Bucky is sitting at the end of the bed, mask on, and his head in his hands. Ronin watched him carefully to see if he was awake or not; knowing that living a life like their’s meant sleeping sitting up sometimes. But Bucky knows the man is watching him and he stills as Ronin kicks him with his foot lightly. He turned his face to look over at him. 

‘You ever take that mask off?’ He winced. 

‘You ever take yours off?’ Bucky grunted back. 

‘Yeah, just haven’t yet. You really ugly or something?’ Bucky laughed a little and so did Ronin, but he stoped suddenly clutching his side. 

‘Or something,’ Bucky said softly. ‘You got shot.’

‘I noticed.’ Ronin let his head fall back onto the pillow and groaned softly. ‘I’m in Captain America’s bed,’ he muttered. ‘Although, you aren’t the real Captain America.’

‘No.’

‘I always preferred Bucky Barnes over Steve Rogers,’ Ronin confesses letting his eyes close, crinkling at the sides in a painful tableaux. 

‘Really?’ 

‘Well, I mean Steve Rogers is a looker but he was always too good. Y’know?’ Ronin’s breathes were shallow and his voice laced in pain, but he was talking through it like it was second nature. Bucky knew what that was like. In their line on work you’re never not hurting. ‘Bucky Barnes always looked a little unhinged.’

‘And you find that attractive?’ Ronin looked Bucky over quickly for any signs that he was hurt and knew in a moment that he’s fine. 

‘I’m a guy who spends his days dressed in leather maiming people with a sword. Of course I like danger.’ He tried to shift around and pushed himself up to till his back is against the headboard. He was still holding his side as he let his head lie flat against the wood. ‘And when I’m not doing that I’m in a purple get-up with a bow and arrow…it’s all relative. Anyway, Steve Rogers was always the perfect blonde haired blue eyed boy; it’s a little boring.’ Ronin reached up to his face and peeled off his mask. ‘I would know,’ he laughed. His eyes a misty light blue, not dissimilar from Steve’s deeper sea blue, were crinkled in a grimace, and his hair a messy flop of yellow blonde. He did look like Steve; even if only a little. Bucky tried to take in every feature before he put the mask back on, but instead the man threw the mask at Bucky and then closed his eyes once again. He was pale and sickly looking and there were beads of sweat collecting at his temples in a glossy mess. 

‘You seem pretty cavalier about showing me your face,’ Bucky peered back. 

‘I don’t wear the mask to hide something. Although, you are quite the gentleman for not having a peak while I was unconscious,’ Ronin’s voice was distant now as his head lulled against the headboard. ‘M’sorry for bleeding all over your bed.’ He grumbled, his voice barely there. 

‘It’s alright,’ Bucky mumbled, ‘sleep it off.’ 

***

Bucky catches wind of an anti-human terror organisation setting up shop in an old hydra base in New Jersey. He thinks about reaching out to Ronin but after he nearly died in his apartment he hadn’t heard from him in months. There was a meeting of around 10 mutants and he was sure he could take them if he could do a little surveying for a few days. He expected a run of the mill operation. In and out in a couple of days maybe a week. What he didn’t expect was to see Ronin on his first night of staking out the place. His first reaction was to grab him see if he was working the operation too but his lack of costume and his lack of suspicion made Bucky think maybe Ronin didn’t know what he had stumbled onto. That was until Bucky saw Ronin approach of the heads of the operation and shake his hand and offer him a friendly smile. Bucky saw red.

It wasn’t until a day later that he finally got Clint alone. He split off the from the rest of them at about noon and was taking a phone call when Bucky tackled him up against a wall. Ronin threw the phone across the room and grunted as he tried to fight back but Bucky was quick to rest one of his knifes against his throat. 

‘So what? You’re a mutant?’ Bucky tried to keep his voice steady. He couldn’t believe he’d been tricked but that wasn’t what was bothering him the most. Ronin squirmed a little as h

‘No,’ Clint whispered. 

‘Oh, just a suicidal idiot?’ Bucky near shouted. 

‘Can you see your voice down?’

‘Why! They’re gone. Nobody can hear us,’ Bucky felt himself start to question his judgement as Ronin rolled his eyes at him. 

‘I know that, you idiot. I’m not worried about them,’ he was still whispering but his tone cut through Bucky like a knife.

‘Then who?’ The blonde’s eyes fell onto the phone that was across the room. ‘Who is it?’ This elicited yet another eye roll from Ronin.

‘Luke Cage,’ he mumbled.

‘What?’

‘Luke Cage,’ he spat harshly. Bucky dropped the knife slightly but didn’t let Ronin free. 

‘Why?’ 

‘I’m undercover and you’re really blowing it for me.’ Ronin was finally able to push himself free and pick up the phone as Bucky slid his knife back into his holster and watched. ‘Sorry,’ Ronin spoke into the phone. ‘Yeah, I thought I heard someone coming it was nothing. Yeah, let me get back to you after tonight meetings.’ Ronin hung up and quickly turned to Bucky. ‘What the fuck was that.’

‘I thought you-’ Bucky stopped and then shrugged, ‘I thought you were some sort of terrorist!’

‘Why the hell would you think that?’

‘Because you’re in an anti-human terror group?’

‘I’m…You know those fucking lunatic humans who spent their entire time looking for a way to become mutants?’ Ronin explained, rubbing his hands across his face. 

‘I’ve heard of them.’

‘Well I’m Chuck Porter from the New Jersey Human’s for Mutants faction and I am currently working for the anti-human terror group The Clan.’ 

‘You’re kidding me.’ Bucky felt a wash of embarrassment fall over him as Ronin stepped closer. 

‘Do I look like I am?’

‘How long?’

‘6 months.’ Ronin moved closer and gave Bucky a reassuring smile which settled him. Ronin looked different. His hair was a little longer and he had a scar, fully healed, across his lip. He looked a little bulkier to, which intrigued Bucky. He had never seen the man in anything but his ridiculous parade of costumes. It felt weirdly intimate. 

‘So, that’s where you’ve been.’

‘What? Did you miss me, Cap?’ Bucky opened his mouth to reply but couldn’t seem to find the words. Ronin shrugged letting himself sit next to where Bucky had perched himself on one of the desks. 

‘Listen, I’m sorry about all that and I’m sorry for not trusting you,’ Bucky spoke quietly, staring down at his heavy boots. 

‘I wouldn’t trust you either if I’m honest,’ Ronin laughed. 

‘Good.’

‘Good.’ Bucky leant back a little and let his himself relax for a moment. He only realised in that moment how unsettled he had been without Ronin by his side for all those months. It felt good to talk to someone again. He liked the idea of fighting along side him again. 

‘So, you need any help?’ 

‘Their planning an attack tomorrow. Luke Cage and some likeminded costumed folk are going to be there.’

‘So maybe not my crowd then?’ Bucky smiled under the mask but Ronin couldn’t see it. 

‘I mean, I could use a sniper and I heard a rumour you're a good one.’ Bucky turned his head and nodded modestly. 

‘You’ve heard correctly.’ 

‘Let’s get into the details then.’ 

~~~

‘Why won’t you show me your face?’ Ronin asks one day when the two find themselves at the same dockyard investigating a smuggling ring being operated by Benetech. Anti-Mutant warfare, a chemical of some sorts, that would ‘cure mutants and save humanity’. Bucky ignores him as he jumps and swings himself over a the side of a docked ship landing on the deck. Ronin follows, near silent, and the two creep up the boat towards the main containers. Bucky pushes himself up against a wall as a Benetech thug walks on the upper deck above them patrolling. Ronin jumps, swinging himself around the railing and onto the upper deck taking out the thug with one kick and landing without a sound. Bucky climbs the stairs meeting him on the walkway into the ship’s main hub. The two walk in sync as they check for any signs of life. 

‘You need to lighten up a little, Cap,’ Ronin says scanning the right side of the darkened room. There is a noise from further up the ship and the two reach for their respective weapons on their back. Bucky pulls the shield up and catapults it forward, it ricochets off the wall and takes out two more Benetech thugs that were guarding a door. Ronin catches the shield and turns quickly pulling Bucky close. He gasps as Ronin pulls them down to crouch behind the shield as an explosive detonates further down the boat. ‘That was a close one,’ he whispers. 

‘What the hell was that?’ Bucky pulls him up grabbing the shield and moving further up the ship and away from the explosion, Ronin right behind him. 

‘Sensor detonators, the shield must’ve hit a barrier,’ Ronin whispers as they reach a door. The ship tips as the explosion had blown a whole in the side. ‘We’re taking on water, we need to make sure whatever was on this ship hasn’t made it off.’ Bucky kicks down the door to reveal, Helmut Zemo staring him down. Three more of his henchmen are on the two instantly, but it doesn’t take them long to over power them. ‘Hydra’s gotten real pitiful since he took over,’ Ronin sighed, staring down at the three unconscious thugs. ’I barely broke a sweat, what about you Cap?’ He raises his sword to Helmut’s neck and chuckles. Bucky watches as Zemo took him in. 

‘I thought you were dead?’ He muttered, unmoved by Ronin’s threat. 

‘You thought wrong,’ Bucky grunted. ‘Where’s the cargo, Zemo?’ Bucky could see Ronin glance towards him for a moment with questioning eyes, but he ignores him.

‘Now, why would I tell you that?’ Zemo’s voice is plagued with amusement. ‘Going to have your guard dog kill me? I thought you were the one to do the dirty work?’ Bucky takes a tentative step forward. 

‘I will kill you with my bare hands Zemo,’ Bucky growls, pushing Ronin’s sword out of the way and pulling out his pistol aiming it at the masked freak’s temple. 

‘No you won’t,’ he laughs. 

‘Fucking try me,’ Bucky cocks the gun. 

‘Cap,’ Ronin tries to intervene, but Bucky blocks him out. 

‘You won’t kill me…and we both know why,’ Bucky raises his head slowly taking in a deep and shaky breath. Zemo leans in close so only Bucky will hear. ‘It wasn’t just your arm you lost that fateful day.’ Bucky takes a step back, but before he can calculate his next move there is another explosion further up the boat. Ronin and Bucky go flying across the room and land against the wall as Zemo runs out of the metal doors and onto the deck. Bucky tries to get up but his legs are weak and can barely take his weight. Ronin catches him pulling the two of them up and out onto the deck. The whole ship is ablaze as the two stumble back down towards the dock.

‘We need to go now, Cap!’ Ronin shouts over the sound of the ship splintering off into the water. Bucky turns to try and find Zemo but he seemd to have disappeared into the mania. He nods as Ronin drags him over the railing and they jump onto the doc. Ronin is able to drag Bucky a couple of blocks before finding an empty alleyway. The two sit, breathless and covered in debris and ash, as they hear sirens fly past them.

‘You okay?’ Bucky shrugs, mentally checking himself over. No physical injuries. The alley is hidden away from anyone else so he lets himself relax only a little. 

‘I think so, I don’t what happened to me there.’ 

‘You had a run in with Zemo before?’ Bucky nods. ‘Wow, you’re like a real Captain America,’ Ronin laughs stretching himself out against the brick wall and winking at Bucky. ‘I’m starting to think you’re Old Man Steve Rogers underneath all that.’ Bucky shakes his head. 

‘Now, wouldn’t have be a treat,’ he mumbles. 

’You never answered my question,’ Clint says after a moment. 

‘What was that?’

‘Why won’t you show me your face?’ Ronin says, pulling off his mask for emphasis. ‘You got something to hide?’

‘I guess, why would I show you anyway?’ Bucky pats himself down slowly trying to find a reason for his dizzy moment back on the ship. No bleeding, no bruising…nothing physical. 

‘I don’t know, I just thought that we,’ Ronin trails off gazing up at the night sky peaking between the two brick buildings of lower Manhattan. 

‘We what?’

‘Cap, you are the only person who knows who I am…and I know that might not mean anything to you but-‘ Ronin holds the mast between his leather clad hands and laughs still gazing at the stars. 

‘What about Luke Cage and his fun time crew?’ Bucky spits.

‘They aren’t exactly…’

‘Exactly what?’ He interrupts. 

‘Like a family.’ Ronin looked around to Bucky peering over his mask at him. 

‘And we are?’

‘No, but you’re the closest thing I have to a friend.’ Ronin laughs suddenly. ‘Which is very fucking sad.’ Bucky rolls his eyes at that. ‘I don’t even know who you are.’ 

‘If it makes you feel better, I’ve not spoken to anyone but you in years,’ his eyes flicker over to Ronin’s.

‘Are you really ugly?’ Ronin jeers. 

‘Do you really care?’ Bucky smiles beneath the mask, he hasn’t joked around with anyone since his S.H.I.E.L.D days; but he’d missed it. 

‘No.’

‘Then why are you so hung up on me taking the mask off?’

‘You really wanna know the truth?’ Ronin’s voice is suddenly softer; more vulnerable. Which catches Bucky off guard. Ronin turns his head towards Bucky and suddenly all the humour is gone from his eyes.

‘I wouldn’t have asked,’ he mumbled back.

‘Sometimes,’ he whispers, ‘when we’re about to die and the adrenaline is pumping through me, like right now, I want to kiss you.’ Ronin’s tone is sincere and his eyes serious making Bucky’s entire face blush a deep pink behind the mask. 

‘Kiss me?’ His voice is barely there as the two sit alone in a quiet and dark alleyway giving confession.

‘Yeah, but that stupid mask is always in the way,’ Bucky can’t seem to pull his eyes away from the man as he stared him down. He leans up pushing himself closer to Ronin and takes in every little bit of his face. An old scar across his lips mirroring the freshly broken skin. The way the corner of his mouth is permanently crinkled. His misty blue eyes that feel still so eerily familiar. 

‘Close your eyes,’ Bucky whispers. He does. ‘Promise me you can’t see anything.’ Ronin sighs and then smiles a little. 

‘I can’t see a thing,’ he says and then after a beat, ‘promise.’ Bucky places his hand over Ronin’s eyes, which makes the other man groan, and then slips off his mask with the other hand. Ronin reaches up to touch Bucky’s face. His jaw first and then he moves his fingers across his cheek and then stop’s at his lips. He lets his thumb pull at Bucky’s bottom lip. Bucky takes in a shaky breath as he moves a little closer. Ronin smiles into the kiss, which is soft at first, and then he lets his hand’s grab onto Bucky’s waist and pull him in closer. Bucky allows Ronin to take the lead as the kisses get a little rougher. He moans softly and then pulls away. 

‘Please don’t look,’ Bucky whispers, their lips barely touching. 

‘I wont,’ Ronin whispers back. Bucky moves his hand down to cup his jaw and falls back into the kiss. Bucky closes his eyes trusting the man won’t look and lets himself fall into the first kiss he’s had in over 20 years. Ronin is rough and desperate, but the kiss is somehow still completely and utterly spell bounding. Bucky groans as he moves to straddle Ronin’s waist and pushes his hands up and through the swordsman’s hair. Ronin arches his back a little at the touch and the pulls away; his eyes still sealed. ‘Put the mask back on,’ his voice is hoarse and dark. He slips on the discarded mask and Ronin opens his eyes squinting at the direct streetlight that’s shining a spotlight down on them. He laughs and so does Bucky. 

never thought himself an emotional man. But that night, after he kissed Ronin, he cried. It wasn’t wailing or sobbing or even sad. He just felt so overcome with feeling that he cried. Sitting on his worn out mattress, Ronin in the wind, Bucky Barnes thought about Steve, the Invaders and subsequently his first kiss. Toro Raymond. Bucky had never let himself think about his life pre-death much since the battle in Genosha. Bucky thought of everything he lost when he killed Charles Xavier. And finally let himself grieve. 

~~~

The black figure, that had been following Bucky for two blocks now, was getting closer and closer, but not close enough for Bucky to notice who it was. He noticed all the civilians, human and mutant, that filled the busy streets and took a detour into an abandoned warehouse that looked familiar. He stopped once he had made his way into the middle of the building giving the figure enough time to realise what was happening. Bucky felt him move around the edge of the room in the shadows. He reaches for the shield but something stops him as he get’s a hint of familiar vanilla in the air. Ronin. He felt himself begin to relax and lose track of the figure as he rolled his eyes. Suddenly he was pinned to an old brick column. An arm pinning him down at the throat choking him. Ronin was without his mask and his eyes wide and scared. 

‘Who the hell are you,’ he had Bucky’s arms pinned against the brick behind his back and his whole body slammed up against him. Bucky tried hard not to remember the last time he was this close to the sword wielding vigilante. ‘Listen here, fucker.’ His voice was laced with something Bucky had never heard before. Bucky had never seen Ronin scared before. ‘Tell me who you are!’

‘Ronin?’ Bucky choked out. 

‘I’m going to die,’ Ronin shouted at him pushing harder into him. 

‘What?’ Bucky tried to push him back a little but it seemed to irritate him even more. 

‘Shut up!’ He breathed deeply. ‘I’m about to die and when I found out…you were the only person I could think about. Not my brother. Not my parents. Just you and so…’ Ronin looked down to the black mask that covered most of Bucky’s face. ‘I’m going to take this fucking mask off.’ 

‘Don’t,’ Bucky starts softly. 

‘Shut. Up.’ Ronin interrupts. ‘I am going to take this mask off because I deserve closure before I fucking die!’ 

‘Ronin.’ Bucky warns, knowing if he can get that man to let his guard down even a little he could over power him. 

‘My name is Clint,’ Ronin whispers, moving his hand up to cup the mask. Bucky tries to move his head back but he was backed right up to the crumbling wall. 

‘Clint,’ he says softly and full of meaning. Clint stops, his hand barely touching the mask now. ‘Please don’t do this.’

‘Cap,’ Clint whispers back. ‘You need to understand. I’m going to die.’ 

‘How?’

‘It’s a long story.’

‘I have all the time in the world,’ Bucky says, feeling a sense of dread fall over him. If someone is after Ronin then he will protect him. He’d die protecting him. The thought scared him but he accepted it.

‘Yeah, but I don’t,’ Clint’s hand grips the mask a little harder. Bucky lets his eyes fall closed as the mask his lifted from his skin. He nothing but his own shallowing breaths and Ronin’s lightly tickling gasps. His body is still firmly pressed up against Bucky as he takes in his face slowly but with impatience. 

‘I thought you were dead?’ Clint finally said unmoving and seemingly unemotional. 

‘I was,’ Bucky opened his eyes slowly taking Clint’s features slowly trying to figure out what he was thinking. 

‘I don’t understand?’

‘I was beheaded by Magneto after I killed Charles Xavier.’

‘You killed Xaivier.’

‘Then the strangest thing happened. It was all black and I saw her.’

‘Who?’ Clint took a step back and let the black muzzle fall onto the concrete floor. Echoing a rattling sound up and down the length of the building. 

‘Wanda Maximoff. She was bright red and glowing. She was suspended in the darkness and she said…she said ’I’m not done with you yet’. And suddenly…I was awake and alive.’ Clint turned away and thought for a moment. Wanda Maximoff the mutant parading as a human had kept him alive. Bucky was still backed up against the wall as Clint paced. 

‘This world isn’t real. This isn’t real,’ Clint said, mostly to himself. 

‘What do you mean?’

‘A mutant, a kid she showed me and these S.H.I.E.L.D agents and Luke Cage…she showed us all the truth.’ The story spilled from Clint like a burst pipe and he couldn’t do anything to stop it. 

‘I don’t understand,’ Bucky took a hesitant step forward.

‘This reality was created by one of the mutants.. They created it because Wanda killed me and..’

‘What?’ Bucky fought the feeling to reach out to Clint as a rage burned up in his chest.

‘And others. I kinda tried to kill her first it’s so confusing, but she was out of control she was losing control and then she did and so they created this…all of this so that nobody would come after her.’ Clint ran his hands through his hair still not looking up at Bucky. 

‘I still don’t get it, you’re dead?’

‘Wanda killed people okay and she wanted to escape whatever punishment was coming her way so they created this reality. Gave everyone what they wanted? I guess and hoped that no one would find out it wasn’t real.’ 

‘So, they brought you back? Why?’

‘Guilt? I’m not sure. Everything is a lie.’ Clint shook himself a little as Bucky stalked towards him.

‘What happened to me?’ Bucky cocked his head up at the man who avoiding his gaze.

‘It’s like I have two lives collapsing in on each other. I know so much.’ Clint was spiralling. Thoughts coming from every direction. Memories that were the same. Memories that were different. So different. Nat. His parents. Bobbi. The circus. Wanda. Fucking Wanda. 

‘Clint!’ Clint looked up at his suddenly and everything cleared. Bucky watched as the man’s eyes flickered around his face taking everything in and the smallest of smiles quivering on the edge of his lips. Clint felt a quietness settle into his brain as he thought about Bucky. The real Bucky. 

‘Your dead,’ he said before he had fully processed it. ‘You’re dead too.’

‘How?’ Bucky didn’t seem too upset about his fate; it didn’t surprise Clint. Bucky had season tickets to this particular show. 

‘During the war. God, you were just a kid and Steve he- Oh, Steve,’ Clint’s hand cupped his mouth in shock as the memories that had always been his came back to him. Steve Rogers, now just an old-aged war hero, his Steve Rogers. ‘Uhh there was an accident I think I remember learning about it. Steve didn’t really talk about it much. Clint spoke softly as if he was only just living it himself. Reading lines from the teleprompter in his brain. Bucky Barnes was dead. The real Bucky Barnes was never a monster. Bucky Barnes died before he could do an evil man’s bidding. Bucky’s own death hit him all at once like a nightmare in the shape of the only person he had left. It was horrendous, it was terrifying, it was beautiful. He smiled. 

‘Why are you smiling?’ Clint’s face crinkled in an amusing confusion. 

‘I’ve regretted everything since the war and every single moment since has been plagued with questions, why am I here…why didn’t I just die-’

‘Cap,’

‘I was brainwashed, Clint. They made me into this…killing machine. The whole world thought I was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D and I was…but they made us believe that Mutants were this terrible, evil race that would kill us all. But they weren’t…they were people and we were no better than the Nazi’s but I couldn’t stop.’ Bucky felt as if he was at an emotional crossroads. The anger of this life being cherry picked by a woman who didn’t even know him. The relief that he wasn’t a monster; not really. The sadness of dying before his time. 

‘I didn’t know,’ the blonde man’s soft words broke the moment and the two were left breathless with unspoken words. 

~~~

‘We’re going to die.’ Clint was sitting next to Bucky, the two finally and completely themselves, up against an old crumbling wall with dust particles dancing in the air between them. 

‘What?’ Bucky sounded numb.

‘They’re all going to Genosha. They’re going to put the world back together the old timeline. They’re going to try and restore it? I guess.’

‘Ha. I thought I’d never die,’ he said curiously. 

‘Any moment could be out last,’ Clint said, matter of factly. 

‘That’s terrifying.’ Clint nodded a little and then let out a hiccuped little laugh followed by a long sigh. Bucky looked over at him as he lay his head in-between his pulled up knees. 

‘You believe me?’ His voice was slightly muffled. 

‘Of course I do,’ Bucky reached out. His hand hesitating for a moment before laying down on the nape of Clint’s neck. 

‘Why?’ 

‘Because you’re the only real thing I’ve got,’ Clint turned his head to the side, peaking out from between his knees up at him. Bucky pulled his hand away and smiles sorely. 

‘Cap-’

‘Call me Bucky,’ he interrupted. 

‘What?’

‘I wanna hear you say my name.’

‘Bucky,’ he whispered after a moment. 

‘Clint,’ he smiled sadly back at the man. 

‘I need to go,’ Clint pushed himself up off the ground and spun around to look down at Bucky. 

‘What?

‘I need to help them get the world back, Bucky.’

‘What world?’ Bucky reached out a hand and Clint grabbed it pulling him up. 

‘I keep thinking that Nat isn't here and Steve’s all but gone and I’m not meant to be here. I can’t stop thinking about how this isn’t real.’ 

‘Clint. I promise you this is real.’ Bucky grabbed his elbow and pulled him close. 

‘You don’t have two universes swirling around in your head,’ he whispered. 

‘So, what? You’re going to go and help secure your own death?’ Clint looked down at him and smiled softly. All the tension fell from his jaw and his squinting eyes. 

‘I’m supposed to be dead, Bucky. But, Steve isn’t meant to be an old man. Natasha should be here. I’m not meant to be this Ronin? It might not be better but it’s what’s real. Like really real.’ Bucky nodded like he understood but he didn’t make a move. 

‘This feels really real to me.’ That makes Clint laugh. 

‘I know. I can’t explain it but this, you and me, it feels more real than anything going on in my head,’ Bucky tilts his head tries to remember how it felt when he saw Clint for the first time all those years ago. How his eyes had haunted him and how easily he fell into place at Bucky’s side.

‘Then don’t leave,’ Bucky near begged. 

‘It’s going to happen, Bucky, with or without me and I’d rather I didn’t die a bitter old man.’

‘But you’d die a lonely one.’ 

‘I’ve never been alone.’ Bucky inhaled sharply as Clint pressed a soft kiss to his temple and let his eyes fall shut at the feeling of closeness. Bucky understood. How could he be really alone, even in death, if Clint was going to be there with him. How could either of them be alone now when they know that they are tied together with invisible string. How could he forget, even if he only ever lived in manufactured nights, the man that stood before him. Clint pulled away at that and leaned down to finally kiss him. 

A while later, while Bucky was wandering around the streets of Brooklyn the world went white.

And rumour has it that when the world clicked back to normal nobody remembered how their lives became twisted. Of course, a few did, and then when it all came crashing down and when it the mutants were lost once again they had to remember. But for the day to day lives that were lived, inside the manufactured world they created, most can’t recall them. Rumour has it that when Bucky Barnes and Clint Barton saw each other for the first time in the real world they knew, like the moon and the ocean, that they had been staring into each others eyes for eternity but had only just come into view like two passing ships floating on the ocean. But, of course, there is no real proof of this.

**Author's Note:**

> Did this make any sense? No? Okay. This was written for trashkingtater so only they can tell me how bad it is. Anyway leave a comment and be nice this was never meant to see the light of day. Title was inspired by the king and queen of music Gerard Way and Taylor Swift. I will take my leave.


End file.
